IN April I was living in Islamabad, in a leafy neighbourhood I had moved to after a few months cooped up in the Red Zone. The talks were on and the city was full of foreign correspondents. We passed a coffee shop on our way out of town and half the café was press. What I remember is how much everybody loved Islamabad. On camera and off it. The hills, the food, the hospitality. Testimonials. The state was delighted, and none of it required a form.

It is August now. Those same correspondents cannot travel to any city outside Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi to produce a story without a No Objection Certificate from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The fixers who drove them around must register on a government portal, as must freelancers, translators and camera operators. For a weekend in Murree, a journalist may apply. Permission may be granted within three working days. Feted in April. Registered in August. We do not even change the cast.

And Al Jazeera’s website has not opened from my desk in Karachi since last Sunday. Two browsers, a phone on mobile data. The page sits there and gives up. No order has been published. The PTA has confirmed nothing. What the ministry did say was that it had........

© Dawn